Positive Action

The Council on Substance Abuse-NCADD has established a partnership with POSITIVE ACTION, a science-based curriculum recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. COSA-NCADD provides training in the use of this curriculum. Character education is an integral part of positive action.

Carol Gerber Allred, developed and taught Positive Action as a high-school social studies elective in Twin Falls, Idaho, from 1974 through 1977. From 1977 through 1982 she developed the program for elementary students. She founded Positive Action Company in 1982 (becoming Positive Action, Inc., in 1999). The program has been used in over 8,000 schools in every U.S. state and ~100 international schools. It is currently in about 2,500 schools.

Positive Action® is Recognized as a Science-Based, Proven-Effective Program

Lists on which Positive Action now appears:
  • U.S. Department of Education, January, 1999: Listed in the Catalog of School Reform Models for Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Models for improving academic achievement.
  • Education Commission of the States for Comprehensive School Reform, October, 1999: for improving academic achievement.
  • U.S. Department of Education, January, 2001: Exemplary and Promising Programs for Safe Disciplined and Drug Free Schools Program. For substance abuse, violence and disruptive behavior prevention.
  • Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, December, 2000: Exemplary Model Program for substance abuse prevention.
  • Character Education Partnership, 2000: Resource Guide of Effective Character Education Programs, character education programs.
  • Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation: 2002, Compendium for Tobacco Use Prevention Programs for Youth, tobacco prevention programs.
  • Chicago Public Schools, 2000-2002, "Life Skills, Drug Prevention and Violence Prevention Curriculums, Training and Counseling Services," Chicago Public Schools mini-grants for Safe and Drug Free Schools program, substance abuse and violence prevention programs.
  • New Jersey Character Education Partnership Initiative, July, 2000-2001: Listed in "Programs of Merit," programs for character development.
  • Illinois Center for Violence Prevention, September, 2001: Listed in "Peacing it Together," violence prevention programs.
  • California Department of Education, 2000, California Healthy Kids, Program Dissemination Center to share information about programs that address alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, and violence prevention.
Lists that are still in the compilation stages:
  • Character Education Partnership, Dr. Marvin Berkowitz Templeton Foundation: Two lists of character education programs that (a) improve academics and (b) improve behavior. Positive Action is on both lists of character education programs.
  • Collaboration for the Advancement of Social and Emotional Learning: University of Illinois at Chicago, 2002 List of programs for effective social and emotional learning.
  • Channing Bete Company, 2003 Communities That Care Prevention Strategies: A Research Guide to What Works, A resource that identifies tested effective policies, programs and actions that address risk and protective factors identified through research.

Program Description

The Positive Action program (PA) consists of:

  • A K-12 classroom curriculum with over 1,200 lessons. Using Teacher's Kits (manuals and materials for each grade), classroom teachers present 15-20-minute lessons in grades K-8. Drug-education supplement kits expand on drug-education lessons in grades 5-8. Positive Actions for Living is the text for grades 9-i 2 (42 lessons, 45 minutes each). All components are culturally sensitive, appropriate for diverse student populations. Lessons are developmentally appropriate, and scoped and sequenced. Curricula can also be used in after-school programs.
  • A Principal's Kit, with directions for a school-climate program to promote the practice and reinforcement of positive actions in the school population. The Counselor's Kit (manual/materials) is used with high-risk students in the school, home, and community.
  • A Family Kit contains weekly lessons paralleling the school program and parent-involvement activities.
  • A Community Kit with manuals and materials encourages community involvement in schools and student/parent involvement in their community.
How the program works

The program is adopted by a school which uses it school-wide. Training/staff development is conducted prior to beginning the program by the Positive Action staff or school personnel using the Positive Action workshop materials. PAI staff can provide training in the use of the program to all school staff (not only teachers) for one day before or at the beginning of the school year, one half day mid-year, and one half day at the end of the year.

Administratively, the program is guided by the principal with the assistance of a coordinator and a committee. The curriculum is taught by all the classroom teachers 15 minutes a day, four days a week, using a grade-appropriate kit containing a manual with all the lessons planned and all the materials prepared. The school climate program involves everyone in the school reinforcing positive actions they see throughout the day.

A Family Kit for parents contains lessons and materials that parallel the school curriculum and school climate program. It is also used for parenting classes. The Community Kit organizes a steering committee which links with the school to support the school's efforts and to provide opportunities for students to do positive actions in the community.

The school curriculum can also be used for an after-school program. The program offers an Implementation Plan to achieve fidelity of implementation. There is also a plan for program evaluation which schools are strongly encouraged to use to demonstrate and monitor program effects.

Evaluation Designs

The Positive Action program has been researched and evaluated in every kind of school and location by the program's developer, school districts and independent evaluators. During each of the five years she was developing the program, Dr. Allred used independent evaluators to evaluate the program. In 1982-83 she incorporated an evaluation of the program into her doctoral dissertation. Brian Flay, D.Phil. of the University of Illinois at Chicago has conducted recent evaluations. Evaluation designs have included experimental-control group, national comparison group (e.g., changes in percentile rankings), matched control, pre-post case, and comparison group studies.

Outcomes

Data from various comparison group designs involving over 100 elementary schools delivering the Positive Action program demonstrate consistent positive effects of the program on student behavior (discipline, suspensions, crime, violence, drug use), performance (attendance, achievement) and self-concept. See left-hand panel. These results were obtained from all sorts of schools (high and low minority representation, mobility rates, or poverty), in different states, at different times (1970's through 2000). Results were often better in more disadvantaged schools. Several thousand other schools have reported similar results from individual case studies. Below are selected findings in more detail.

Analyses of data from a matched case-control design in a large school district in Nevada found that:

  • PA schools reported 85% fewer incidences of violence per 1000 students than non-PA schools;
  • PA schools scored 14% better than non-PA schools in their percentile ranking of 4 grade achievement scores.

Similar matched control analyses of data from Hawaii found that PA schools reported:

  • 28% better SAT scores than non-PA schools (3-year average of math and reading combined);
  • 88% fewer disciplinary problems than non-PA schools;
  • 20-32% lower daily absenteeism than non-PA schools.

In an intensive case study of effects of variations in implementation, some findings were that:

  • Grade 4 and 5 students reported major changes in ever engaging in substance use and violence: among students without PA, 16% engaged in a negative behavior for the first time, compared with only 12% who received some of PA and 10% for students who received all of PA.
  • Level of PA implementation had significant effects on parents, improving their already high readiness to take responsibility for their child's character and behavioral development, increasing the level of communication with their child, and improving their knowledge of their child's friends and their parents.

Complete implementation integrity can be ensured with staff training. In an evaluation of training, program effects were greater when teachers received PAI training than when they did not:

  • 34% vs 20% fewer violence-related incidents (threats, fights, battery and weapons possession);
  • 28% vs 5% improvements in percent scoring above the median on standardized achievement tests; and
  • 20% vs 2% fewer chronic absentees.

In a large Florida school district, middle schools with a high percent of students coming from PA elementary schools (but who were not implementing PA themselves) reported (two to four years later):

  • 15% fewer incidents of SU (tobacco, alcohol, illicit substances) in schools with 65-75% PA graduates, and 26% fewer incidents in schools with more than 75% of its students being PA graduates (see Figure 2);
  • 20% more students scoring above the median on standardized grade 8 reading and math tests;
  • 21% fewer violence-related incidents (threats, fights, battery and weapons possession);
  • 21% fewer incidents of disrespect, disobedience or disorderly conduct; and
  • 8% fewer out-of-school suspensions, with the effects being larger for high-minority schools.

Overall, there is a strong dose-response relationship, with stronger effects occurring in middle schools with greater numbers of PA graduates.

Overall, the Positive Action (PA) program has the comprehensive effects expected of it by its developer and predicted for it by current theory. Data from various comparison group designs involving over 300 elementary schools using PA demonstrate consistent positive effects of the program on school performance (attendance, achievement) and behavior (discipline, suspensions, crime, violence, drug use). Across studies, PA has produced the following results:

  • Academic achievement improved by 12-75%
  • Absenteeism reduced by six to 45%
  • Self-concept improved up to 43%
  • General discipline reduced by 23 to 90%
  • Violence and drug use reduced by 26 to 63%
  • Criminal bookings reduced by up to 94%

Several thousand other schools have reported similar results from individual case studies (simple pre-post comparisons or anecdotal reports). These results were obtained from all sorts of schools (urbanicity, high and low minority representation, mobility rates, or poverty), in different states, at different times (1970’s through 2001). Some of the above results are reported in a peer-reviewed research journal (Prevention Science, June 2001).

It is noteworthy that results were often better in more disadvantaged schools. Most effects were equally positive or better across ethnic groups, levels of poverty (usually indicated by percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch), and levels of student mobility. Structural equation modeling shows that PA reduces the normally high correlation between poverty and achievement. These are exceptionally important findings, as intervention effects of other programs have often been found to be smaller in schools with high proportions of minority students, poverty or mobility. No other program has proven effects across so many academic and behavioral domains, and no other program demonstrates equal or superior effectiveness in the most needy of schools.

Results from long-term followup of students who received PA in elementary school demonstrate that the effects of PA can carry on once students graduate from elementary school. If most of the students come from elementary schools with PA, behavior and achievement was better than in middle- or high-schools with fewer or no PA graduates. Training of Principals, teachers and other school staff by Positive Action, Inc staff produced improved implementation and effectiveness.

  • Alternative Education Program - COSA-NCADD presents Positive Action in alternative schools instituted by the local school systems to serve students who are academically at risk due to disruptive behavior. The agency melds this comprehensive program with the structural nature of the school and the critical needs of these students who are extremely at risk. Topics include conflict resolution, stress and anger control, peer pressure, as well as alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

  • Summer Alternative Programs - Provides high risk children with fun-filled, educational activities away from the school environment. The activities are designed to teach children a wide variety of lifetime skills, and to offer recreational activities emphasizing a drug-free lifestyle. Role models such as firemen, police officers, military cadets, and businessmen are introduced daily to show the children that a fine, fulfilling, and successful life can be obtained by staying in school and remaining drug free.

  • Juvenile Justice Program - This was the first of its kind in Alabama, offering youth who are interred by the juvenile court a comprehensive, fifteen-part curriculum with an outcome component. The youth are administered a pre-test during intake and a post-test at release. COSA-NCADD's computer tracking system allows the agency to maintain outcome data showing changes in attitude, intention, and knowledge.

  • Stop the Violence - Keep Schools Safe
    - Incidents of violence in schools across the nation validated the premise COSA-NCADD has long held that anger and violence reduction education is badly needed in the form of science based proven, comprehensive programs. While the topic has always been a major facet of COSA-NCADD's curriculum, emphasis has been increased as the public became aware of its need. Stop the Violence - Keep Schools Safe has as its basic premise the building of coalitions between schools and communities and ways schools can prevent violent incidents. Training in warning signs of the child who may be prone to violent acts and steps to take to intervene, is offered. Also we teach students to recognize the warning signs and promote positive results of information sharing.

  • Program for Parents/Parenting for Men - COSA-NCADD's prevention/education programs for parents include signs of drug use, drug paraphernalia identification, types of drugs and their symptoms, and consequences of drug use. Also included are positive parenting skills such as non-violent discipline and role modeling. Parents are shown intervention techniques and are informed on what treatment and support is available for young people.

  • M.A.D. (Making a Difference: Helping Parents Help Their Children):
    - A school based, collaborative, family-focused program designed to increase school performance of at-risk elementary school children supporting the natural strength of the family unit.

  • Pregnant Women - With Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) among the top three causes of birth defects, COSA-NCADD presents a strong, no drug-use program to pregnant women and female teens. The dangers of any drug use during pregnancy are explored, and the audience is shown graphic evidence of the preventable harm which can be inflicted, sometimes unknowingly, by expectant mothers. The effect of the mother's tobacco use on the fetus, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and the long-term effects of crack and cocaine are included.

  • Senior Citizens - COSA-NCADD pioneered drug prevention programs for the elderly in Alabama. Drug interaction with alcohol is explained, as well as the dangers of combining medicines & taking correct amounts & kinds of medications. Alcoholism among the elderly is also discussed, along with the availability of treatment and support.

  • Inmates - Prison and jail populations are the target for COSA-NCADD's incarcerated adult program. The effects, dangers, and consequences of alcohol and other drug abuse are overlaid with the inclusion of life-skills. Alternatives to violent behavior are emphasized.

back to top

 

Chamber Member